Career Dilema

Hey everyone,I have recently graduated from University College London in Msc Management and have job offers from PwC ( IT Risk Assurance), Accenture ( Management Consulting ) and KPMG ( Deal Advisory) . My aim is to break into the MBB because of which I am considering Accenture as its a Management Consulting role. I picked the Accenture role purely because it was MC as opposed to the other two options. Would working in IT Risk Assurance or Deal Advisory still open the MBB doors for me ? As it stands I have to respond to the KPMG offer on Monday as the role starts on 5th October. Furthermore, I have requested Accenture to consider me for a Strategy Consulting role with the view of entering the MBB. Any advice from you guys will be valuable .

Thank you !
Raj

 
Best Response

What would you be doing for KPMG? If its a corporate finance role (as the Big4 corpfin is basically an MM IB in Europe), I'd consider taking it over Accenture, unless you get a strategy role there. Actually, even DD/valuation could be preferable to vanilla MC at Accenture, as it tends to be an IT consulting role. MBBs tend to look down massively at the Accenture/Bearing Point/other bottom-tier consultancies (which is pretty much anything that is not Deloitte/AT Kearney/LEK/other tier-2's), and you might be better off coming from a finance-y role at a Big 4 than a "looser" consultancy (as they are perceived by the MBB). At least I don't know literally a single person with an Accenture background at my office (or couple other offices that I've worked for), but I do know quite a lot of people with Big 4 backgrounds, including the corpfin/deals roles.

 

Thanks a lot Qayin for your response! KPMG has given three preferences to choose from, corporate finance ( M&A, capital advisory group, valuations), Restructuring ( Financial restructuring, formal insolvency) and Transaction(Regions, Private Equity Group, Corporates). Additionally we will be working towards an ACA qualification as part of the three year graduate scheme. I am thinking of declining PwC because its purely an IT role. I was interested in Accenture since it was management consulting and also because I've requested them to consider me for a Strategy consulting role . I understand that working for Accenture will definitely reduce my chances to move to an MBB but would a strategy role at Accenture bring me on a level playing field as the people in big 4s who are trying to move to a MBB. If you dont mind me asking, do you work for a MBB firm.

Thank you very much for your help !!!

 

corporate finance at KPMG is your best option. A strategy role in Accenture is definitely better than Accenture MC or PwC IT consulting, but I would still go for the corpfin even though it is less directly relevant, if you're sure you want to and have the horsepower to switch to the MBB later on. MBBs think along the lines that we better take someone who has an interesting background/is smart and teach him to do consulting the right way from the get go, rather than take someone already doing consulting at a mediocre firm. If you have a corpfin background they can also sell you as a "finance expert" when pitching a case involving capital/acquisition deals, rather than "hey this guy couldn't get an offer from us out of college, so he settled for Accenture instead".

But if you're not sure you will be able to gun for an MBB/tier-2 firm, Accenture Strategy might give you more diverse exit options (like corp.strat at a smaller company or marketing or w/e). KPMG exits would be finance related unless you make the switch or go to a business school.

Yes, I do work for an MBB.

 

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